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Friday, May 27, 2011

Things have been going my way for the month of May... I've been putting in a lot of volume with coaching/studying/playing - and its been paying off.. I'm really pleased with where things are at regarding the balance in my life - how much I go out with respect to how much I work and sleep, I'm normally terrible at one of those but at the moment I'm pretty happy with where everything's at. It's been a month or two since I really put a lot of work into improving my own game, and I like a lot of the doors that have been opened in my head with regards to my thought process in certain spots and identifying aspects of my opponents games. I'm looking to keep putting in work and *hopefully* putting up more big months in SNG's..

Friday, May 20, 2011

Finally started getting things going, I hate getting staked because of how much money it costs me.. but it really does spur my motivation when all i have to do is play.. if I pound the numbers I get paid in rakeback, whatever profit comes is a bonus. This mindset ultimately leads me to play infinitely better, because all I'm trying to do is play, I don't care about anything else at all.... That being said, once I gather some momentum I really need to discontinue the stakes as they are exceptionally expensive. I'm not trying to slow down my grind at all, so I have the daily VPP target set to something reasonable, 3500. This number isn't anywhere near SNE pace, but its enough VPP's that I can play a decent amount and then decide if I want to play MTT's the rest of the day, or take some time off.. For those that don't know, I play 7 days a week. I really don't take any full days off, so setting the daily goal to something I can manage while still being able to go out and do something else is pretty important. I also changed my avatar to the Juggernaut, which is a fictional character whose more or less unstoppable as long as he can move and gather momentum. Whatever small reminder I have to continue playing and not slow down is obviously +ev, and now that I'm winning again - I have no intention of slipping back, so its about time you started fuckin' game selecting again..

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Pokerstars has continued working on the SNG lobby with respect to buyins and rake, I'm really happy with the rounded buyins again... ($100 even instead of $107.65, etc) I have't done any calculations with respect to rake, I'm sure James will come up with a post addressing it, as he's done one with most of their changes to this point.

On a side note, I've been getting in a ton of volume again since getting staked... it just provides me with peace of mind and allows me to play a better game with more volume ... Its so much easier when winning and losing doesn't impact your bankroll, its expensive.. but the peace is worth it...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

I love these moments, there the ones that make everything seem so simple... They can challenge things that we previously accepted, but the most important thing about the "aha" moment, is that from then on things tend to get a little better... These moments take place in poker somewhat frequently because we spend so much of our time studying, (in some way or another) and lately a huge amount of my attention has been devoted to the mental game of poker. (See Jared Tendler)

First, let me identify what exactly took place to bring me to my inspiring revelation.. I was laying in bed at 4 in the morning, which is equivalent to most people's 3:00 in the afternoon for my sleep schedule (I woke up around 7 pm my time), and began sifting through blogs/articles/other random shit that was related to the concept of motivation. After rifling around for around an hour, (I was trying to take a nap but was failing miserably, I know I work too hard) I came across Nanonoko's blog... There was a video, (heres the link) which completely shattered a lot of useless habits I have with respect to poker. Most of the video is arbitrary commentary, but if you fast-forward it to 7:03, he described the most important quality necessary to obtain the success he has through the methods he has, his work ethic. As you can tell by mid afternoon nap, this is an area I'm lacking. It's not that I don't work more than most people my age, (or most people in general) its the timid nature that I can often approach my work with thats the problem. This is the annoying feeling a lot of grinders get that lead them to play stakes much lower than they are qualified to play (ultimately killing their hourly), that get them to quit their sessions early, (see killing hourly), or get them to get so frustrated with their play they take time off to regroup and focus on what's been going on (...see killing hourly...). "Believe in what you do, do it well, do it hard..." Those eleven words, (I may have miscounted because as most poker players, I'm terrible at math) led me to the King Kong feeling of revelation, aha!!! Having faith that you have the right answers, or at least enough right answers to make money at the level you really should be playing at... and that those right answers will be realized in the long run is crucial to maximizing our success as poker players or individuals in any industry. I'm not saying honest personal evaluation isn't useful or necessary, but I think a lot (especially mid-low stakes players) overdo it, and don't give themselves enough credit. Have faith that what you're doing has a positive expectation, do it well, and just keep doing it! (See aha...)

Friday, May 13, 2011

Push it, push it, push it.... When we lose, our motivation gets sapped, when we breakeven, our motivation slowly dissipates, and when we win huge.... we wanna take a break and enjoy the fruits of our labor, it makes for a lackadaisical lifestyle. Recognizing that I'm slowing down, and using that to propel me forwards is almost enough, when its not... It just means its time to put the grind music on 24/7 and get it done..

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Aight so by now most grinders not living under a rock, and therefore not reading this... are aware of the changes Pokerstars has implemented with respect to SNG's and their tournament lobby. For those unaware of the changes, they can be found here . Now, first I'll go into what I think of the respective changes for the general population, and then how they affect me. First, there has been a ton of slamming going on with respect to how the changes affect low-medium staked grinders, and even further talk about the games being nearly unbeatable. This isn't the case, period. If someone does think the new rake structure has made a Multi-table SnG that was previously beatable for a modest living, (i.e. anywhere from $5 to $50) we can come up with a prop bet... I do not think all of the changes were good for all of the low-mid stakes games, but those games didn't need changes to begin with.... with the exception of the 16's and the ridiculous amount of EV they carried for having such low rake. Epitomised has a table which can be viewed here, summarizing the different changes to the games. If I remember correctly there are three levels which saw an increase to rake, and it was by a marginal enough amount that the games are still healthy and beatable. With respect to what they've done above low-mid stakes, I don't think anyone can complain, as the rake has dropped. It wasn't earth shattering, it wasn't mind blowing... It was what you should expect, a slight adjustment to help winning players maintain a win rate in games that were getting extremely tough. I may get flamed for this response, which is fine.. but no one like money being taken out of their pocket, so I expect most players who spend their time grinding the games that were affected to be in utter shock and totally pissed... Which given the earlier promise of "rake reduction", is probably warranted. For some grinders rake went up, but I genuinely believe that in the 16's it had to, and in the other games its understandable.

The new structure and how I think it will affect grinders. Well, this is simple.. for grinders like myself, my boy Push , or the super sicko doctor Immekus , life is good.. Why, because we play less tables and won't have any problem adjusting to changing blind levels... However, for those players playing more tables, this is obviouisly bad. More blind levels means a different basic set of decisions for each level.. which further complicates things for the 40 tabler, whether its favorable to fish due to the timebank issue or not remains to be seen, but I'll take the drop in rake for losing a blind level... Cheers and good luck!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Finally started to gather some momentum and get things going in the right direction, its so crucial to just hammer away at times like this and not get comfortable and slow down... When its easy to find the motivation we need to pursue whatever goals we may have, its imperative to capitalize. Opportunities to succeed are what we make of them, if we squander them away then we have only ourselves to blame, likewise when we succeed... gonna try to play a ton!!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Well, my last post was trying to motivate myself.. and since then I think I've played an astounding 10 sngs... (Guesstimate) I had a slight problem with my sleeping pattern which I corrected, I was waking up somewhere between 5 and 6 pm, and when I went out was basically having beer and hamburgers for breakfast.. This caused me to stay up for around 30'ish hours without sleep (during this time I elected not to playing as without a supplement like adderall you're likely dead money) so excluding this stint I don't know exactly how lazy I've been... I spent a decent amount of time playing with wordpress and talking to Matt Geer about internet marketing and motivation, which may not be quantifiable but is certainly still +ev... I'm looking to put in some more volume now, but since I started writing this things haven't really been going my way.. Oh well, head up nose down...

Monday, May 2, 2011

It doesn't take much more than a person with sharkscope to know that I'm on a pretty awful downswing (something like 15k).. when variance kicks in hard like this playing is generally speaking one of the last things I want to do.. the first and second day I want to play more, because I'm trying to get to even or ahead of whatever I lost that day/the day prior.. But once we've gone beyond the first two days finding the motivation to continue gets a little tougher when every light call stares at the nuts, every 70-30 run's out bad, 80-20's seem like flips and when people look like their drawing dead to a flopped flush they back door a boat.. I could probably sit here and continue the rant for a week (This is the biggest downswing of my career so I could literally harp forever) But I think the best medicine is a little bit of

Time to quit bitchin' and get my head up... blame ME for the variance, review MY game, fix MY mistakes, take MY variance and minimize it.. take RESPONSIBILITY for where things are at, everyone knows I do it when I'm winning, so there's no reason to do anything else when I'm losing - Winning's a choice, sometimes it just takes a little time for the graph (and the bank account) to realize it...

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Took the day to hang out with my brother, visit downtown and enjoy a few drinks... Wound up sleeping at his place and waking up at my usual time, which is about 3 in the afternoon... Gotta work on fixing these sleeping habits as well, as it makes grinding Sunday MTT's impossible and tends to lead me to having beer, hamburgers, and french fries for breakfast at around 6pm...

Beyond all of this I fully intend to put in a decent session today (which I'm in the middle of while completing this...) As always, gl at the tables :)